China has launched an initiative to transform the area around
the South China Sea into a regional development hub, a move that
will deepen ties with its ASEAN neighbors.
Called the "Pan-Beibu Gulf Rim Cooperation Plan," the initiative
includes port cluster construction, joint resource exploration, and
economic and trade integration, said Liu Qibao, the newly appointed
secretary of the CPC committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The Beibu Gulf area includes five ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) countries -- Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei,
Malaysia and Singapore -- and China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces as well as Guangxi.
Jiang Zhenghua, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC), said the initiative is of importance to
the overall development of China's coastal areas.
"If this great potential is realized, the gulf area can become
China's fourth economic powerhouse along its coastal regions,"
Jiang said yesterday at a forum on regional economic cooperation in
Nanning, capital of Guangxi.
Contributing more than 60 percent to the country's overall
economy, the Pearl River Delta in south China, the Yangtze River
Delta in east China and north China's Bohai Sea Rim area are
China's three economic engines fuelling growth.
Appointed as Party secretary last month, Liu said he expected
the initiative to be discussed by China's leadership at the 17th
National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which will be
held in the second half of 2007.
"We can start cooperation with infrastructure construction," Liu
said. "That will facilitate trade and other flows."
He proposed that the region build an expressway linking Nanning
and Singapore. "The plan is feasible because we only need to build
about 300 kilometers of new road although the total distance to be
covered exceeds 3,000 kilometers."
International communities and domestic officials applauded the
initiative, saying it shows China's commitment to speeding up
construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.
"I agree that infrastructure should be the priority as the
region's development is not even," Rita Nangia, an Asian
Development Bank official in charge of major infrastructure
investment, told China Daily.
She said the expressway would become another planned link
between China and ASEAN members. Under the previous initiative
called "Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Sub-region," also part of
the China-ASEAN framework, an expressway linking Kunming in Yunnan Province and Singapore was planned in
2004. The Mekong River runs through China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand,
Cambodia and Vietnam.
"Both links are big projects consisting of parts of the Asian
expressway network, and our goal is to link Beijing and Singapore
by road," Nangia said.
Sudrajat, Indonesian ambassador to China, said the initiative
could help deepen economic ties between the two countries. He said
coastal areas in China, including Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, are
already major investment targets for Indonesians, and the new
development plan would expand economic and trade activities between
the two sides.
Cao Yushu, deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group
for Western Region Development of the State Council, said the
blueprint could help China's western regions reach markets in the
Beibu Gulf.
"It's a plan indicating China's increased commitment to opening
up to the world, especially through cooperative relations with the
10 ASEAN member countries," said Cao. "It's a landmark event aimed
at promoting the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade
Area."
With the establishment of the strategic partnership, the two
sides have made substantial progress in many fields, including
trade.
In 2005, trade volume between China and ASEAN member countries
reached US$130.4 billion,?increasing 23 percent year-on-year.
Trade is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2010.
(China Daily July 21, 2006)
